Alice Cooper: the nicest ghoul in rock

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A meeting of minds: Cooper and Home Secretary Theresa May (pictured at a recording for The Andrew Marr Show)Handout/Getty Images

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Cooper and friend at a gig at London's 100 Club earlier this yearMarilyn Kingwill

Will Hodgkinson

Last updated at 12:01AM, October 27 2011

He’s been electrocuted, stabbed and beheaded but, with his Night of Fear nigh, Alice Cooper couldn’t be enjoying it more

Everyone knows that life in a rock’n’roll band can be dangerous. Ronnie Van
Zandt of Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a plane crash. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin
and countless others died of drug overdoses. John “Stumpy” Pepys of Spinal
Tap died in a bizarre gardening accident. There’s only one band, however, in
which its musicians run the risk of being electrocuted, stabbed, and even
decapitated every night: Alice Cooper.

“I always used to tell guys joining the Alice Cooper Band the same thing,”
says Cooper. “You’re going to see the world. You’re going to get paid.
You’re going to get stitches.”